Our 9 Habits

The Thinking Box habits are shown on the right. There are two for each pillar and one general one. We encourage the adoption of the habits during all Thinking Box sessions and beyond.

http://thinkingbox.info/about/habits/

Thinking Box Habits

Thinking Box aims to help create a world that works for everyone by building a movement of people with raised awareness. We build this around our 4 pillars and 9 habits. But why is each of these pillars and habits needed at all – are we living on a burning platform?

In any culture where power is unevenly distributed people can feel they have no voice. Or in a competitive environment speaking up might feel risky for fear of being misunderstood or judged poorly, losing favour with those in power. It can be safer to stay quiet and not rock the boat. Other times a meeting of people might just be dysfunctional with no direction or outcome. A lesson with a poor learning design or a conference with back to back speeches and no time to think and discuss.

Many already know how to provide safety for all and processes for effective discussion, thinking and learning, they are just not yet widespread. At Thinking Box a trained host will provide a safe welcoming nurturing space where everyone can be seen and heard. Our tried and tested processes are effective and engaging, cultivate support, empathy, learning, collaboration and sharing. You will feel engaged yourself and learn how to spread these skills more widely, hosting great conversations anywhere in your life.

Within the maelstrom of modern electronic communication we may be more connected but many feel more isolated. As email, text, internet and social media use goes up face to face conversations decrease. Even the shared viewing experience of TV has been replaced by online viewing alone. With this decrease in discourse we are more prone to being influenced by media generated narratives which we can make viral before vetted properly. For those conversations we do have, our unequal world leaves many feeling they have no voice. If we are persistently not heard a listening deficit is built up and we might become increasingly desperate to speak rather than listen to others resulting in a vicious circle of non-communication!

At Thinking Box we call for and enable a dramatic increase in face to face conversations – and become skilled in having great ones, both planned and spontaneous. We create a growing coalition of engaged people who think from first principles on topics of importance to them. The grass roots discourse created by the people themselves weakens the grip of the elite driven media narrative. A democratic revival. We listen first and cultivate active listening skills so others can feel heard and understood. A listening culture.

The moment we are born we are influenced by what surrounds us. We develop cultural allegiances and can inherit normalised beliefs and habits often only realising when we notice others with ones different to ours. We are all conditioned in some way. Questioning our own beliefs can help uncover conditioning and a similar questioning of any information is an important skill for any functioning fair society. Sadly, this is not a widespread practice and without it, we can become vulnerable to manipulation and control. The more passive and disengaged a population the less able they are to correct problems that arise. If the root of a problem lies beyond your circle of influence you are left to deal only with the symptoms, which are likely to return in time.

At Thinking Box we cultivate and promote critical thinking skills in society by providing training and practice in all sessions. We learn to question information sources, re-evaluate held beliefs and think for ourselves. We also seek out the root causes of problems not just deal with the symptoms, no matter how complex and overwhelming they might be.

In a world that works for some only, we work hard to ensure we are one of the fortunate ones. But we are not naturally insular and we empathise with the pain felt by others. But if helping another is beyond our circle of influence we might choose to ignore the problem to preserve ourselves. Busy lives and lots of media distractions can further decrease or circle of concern. As people we tend believe what is easiest to bear or avoid problems that are hard to solve. Individually we have limited emotional strength and we become risk averse under pressure, preferring to keep the status quo.

At Thinking Box we aim to expand our empathy – our circle of concern and team up to have our circle of influence grow to meet it. We listen to understand and empathise not judge a wide range of viewpoints and loosen attachments to old beliefs. Our powerful and evocative video content and open discussions provide a fertile environment to grow emotionally.

Accepting that the world can only ever work for a few breeds a competitive culture, division, disillusionment and inertia, making coalitions hard to create. Any that are, are subject to fragmentation as people of good will pull in different directions. Long term visions of genuine collective gain are replaced by risk averse short-termism.

At Thinking Box we inspire people to overcome inertia and engage. We support citizens coming together with a collaborative mindset and raising awareness. Instead of arguing about small details we cultivate visions around universally accepted principles. To help build a world that works for everyone.